As students from the University of Vermont and other area colleges return to Burlington for the fall semester, research indicates Burlington’s vacancy rate, a benchmark of a healthy housing market, remains anemic.

Across Burlington, rental rates in Vermont’s largest city remain high.

According to South Burlington real estate research firm Allen & Brooks, June 2015 average monthly rents for a one-bedroom apartment in Burlington ranged from $900 to $1,200.

For a two-bedroom unit, the price ranged from $1,200 to $1,500, and for a three-bedroom, $1,500 to $2,400.

Mark Brooks of Allen & Brooks said rents range based on quality and location. Rents also have increased at a steady rate during the past decade, he said.

“Apartment rents in Chittenden County have increased on average about 3 percent annually over the past 10 years,” Brooks said. “Each year average rentals rates increased from 1.5 percent in 2010 to 4.6 percent in 2007.”

Allen & Brooks creates twice-annual reports on the residential and commercial markets in Chittenden County. The firm sells the reports to other real estate firms and municipalities, including the city of Burlington.

University of Vermont seniors Lucy Lincoln and Meredith Rofheart moved into Rofheart’s Bradley Street apartment Friday afternoon. Both said they were dismayed rent in Burlington is so expensive.

“It’s a little excessive, especially because the work that is put into apartments is minimal,” Lincoln said.

Rofheart said rents are too high for the quality of housing stock available to students who wish to live within walking distance of campus.

“The rent is too high for what we’re paying for,” Rofheart said. “The location is great — we’re close to downtown and close to campus — but the apartments themselves are pretty gross.”

Rofheart said her three-bedroom Bradley Street apartment costs $1,975 per month. Lincoln, who lives in a six-bedroom unit on nearby Loomis Street, said the low housing vacancy rate benefits landlords.

“It’s frustrating they can get away with charging us so much,” Lincoln said.

Lincoln said last year, as a junior, she shared a bedroom with a friend to save money on rent.

A majority of Burlington residents are renters. The city has about 9,500 rental units, according to the city Code Enforcement office.

Mayor Miro Weinberger has made housing affordability a priority of City Hall. Planners this year unveiled a draft Housing Action Plan, through which the Weinberger administration hopes to preserve existing affordable housing, create new affordable units, promote home ownership for those who can afford it and improve the quality of housing stock in the city.

City councilors plan to debate the plan this fall.

Key to improving housing affordability in Burlington, the mayor believes, is increasing the housing vacancy rate in Burlington.

According to the Housing Action Plan, the vacancy rate in Chittenden County never eclipsed 3 percent from 1996 to 2014. During that same period, the vacancy rate for the Northeast United States fluctuated from 5-8 percent.

A healthy housing market, economists believe, has a vacancy rate around 4 percent. The June Allen & Brooks report pegged the vacancy rate in Burlington at 1.1 percent.

A 2014 housing report commissioned by the city concluded Burlington suffers from an “affordability crisis.”

The report noted that despite low vacancy rates, only limited new housing was built in Burlington from 2002-13. Of the 222 units that were constructed, fewer than half were fair market rate. Of that group, just 18 were rental units.

Developers have created new housing stock in Burlington since 2014. Redstone Development opened three apartment complexes in the Old North End with a total of 57 units, mostly market-rate.

Redstone plans to open a new, 29-unit complex on Pearl Street later this year.

The city also has seen growth in affordable housing. The Champlain Housing Trust and Housing Vermont on Aug. 27 broke ground on the Bright Street Co-op, a 40-unit affordable housing complex in the Old North End.

To date, these developments have been unable to increase significantly Burlington’s housing vacancy rate, a benchmark Weinberger wants to see improved.

Contact Zach Despart at 651-4826 or zdespart@burlingtonfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ZachDespart.